1. Field of the Invention
Fiber optic image transporting devices with particular reference to image shape converters and method of making the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art devices for converting images from one shape to another, e.g. from a rectangular raster to a line or circle and vice versa, have been extremely difficult, time consuming and expensive to manufacture.
Previous methods of making fiber optic image shape converters involved the handling of great numbers of usually very fine fibers in special aligning, bundling and cementing operations. A common procedure was to form a multiplicity of ribbons of parallel fibers and handpack these ribbons one upon another into a desired raster configuration at one end of the array. Corresponding opposite ends of the ribbons were then manually lined up side by side or into a circular or other configuration.
In addition to ordinary problems of fiber breakage in the handling of fiber ribbons per se, prior art difficulties in making the ribbons without such imperfections as fiber breakage, fiber overlapping and/or excessive spacing between fibers have seriously limited the availability of fiber optic image shape converting devices. Furthermore, those commercially available or otherwise obtainable have been unduly expensive and generally of inferior fiber optic quality.
An aim of the present invention is to improve the image resolving and transmitting capabilities of fiber optic image shape converters and to provide a process for manufacturing these devices which is adaptable to large or small production runs and requires, in either case, only a minimum of time, expense and skill to implement while offering an assurance of repeated duplication of the improved end product result.